While the #OscarsSoWhite controversy rolls on, Idris Elba has visited Westminster to speak out about the lack of diversity on British television. Elba was one of the actors who colours who was snubbed in the Oscar nominations—his performance in Beasts of No Nations got rave reviews, but didn’t really make it into the awards discussions.
Invited to speak by Labour MP Oona King, Elba gave a half hour speech on the importance of having women, disabled people and people of different races visible on national television He started out by saying “When we look out of the window, none of us really live on Downton Abbey,” and continued to speak truth from there.
People in the TV world often aren’t the same as people in the real world. And there’s an even bigger gap between people who make TV, and people who watch TV. I should know, I live in the TV world. And although there’s a lot of reality TV, TV hasn’t caught up with reality.
He spoke about black actors being stuck with either just the sidekick or supporting characters, or typecast as petty criminals. Speaking about his own experiences:
I knew I wasn’t going to land a lead role. I knew there wasn’t enough imagination in the industry for me to be seen as a lead. In other words, if I wanted to star in a British drama like Luther, then I’d have to go to a country like America. And the other thing was, because I never saw myself on TV, I stopped watching TV. Instead I decided to just go out and become TV.
Channel 4 have uploaded the full speech, and it’s definitely worth 30 minutes of your time.
